Daelkyr half-bloods do not have a culture, and are not unified in any way. Some serve the Lords of Madness who corrupted their unborn bodies, while others avoid the Daelkyr at all costs, and by extension tend to be even more distrustful of other half-bloods than other races. Even those who try to fit in among their host culture share little in common with one another, for the Daelkyr can and do corrupt anything they can, and there are half-bloods from every culture on Khorvaire. They are few in number, solitary, and there is certainly no charismatic Daelkyr half-blood out there trying to unify the race and lead it to some grand destiny.

Nonetheless, half-bloods do share something in common: symbionts. Every Daelkyr half-blood has at least one; in fact, is dependent on retaining at least one. Even those who reject their "parents" from Xoriat may still come to focus on their natural talents with these creatures, and in so doing come to be a paragon of what it means to be a Daelkyr half-blood.

AdventuresDaelkyr half-bloods adventure largely to get away from a civilization that is terrified of them; Daelkyr half-blood paragons adventure to find new symbionts. Of course, by definition the paragon has his own uses for the symbionts, which will be different from every other Daelkyr half-blood; no single unifying quest is clearly present for every one.

CharacteristicsDaelkyr half-blood paragons are usually best described as defiant. A half-blood living on the surface of Eberron who seeks out greater control over symbionts is defying the culture of the surface that hates and abhors the aberrations. A half-blood doing so while subjugated to the Daelkyr is seeking to out-do his masters at their own craft. Aside from this salient feature, however, Daelkyr half-blood paragons are as varied as the half-bloods themselves.

AlignmentParagons of Daelkyr half-bloods, even those who reject the Lords of Madness, are almost always Chaotic. Even attempting to be Lawful would be an almost Chaotic thought - for a half-blood is doing so only out of rebellion against his aberration heritage. Evil is also far more prevalent than Good, but this is more a function of how many half-bloods the Daelkyr retain command of.

ReligionWhile Daelkyr half-bloods do not favor any religion, worship of The Traveler is slightly - but significantly - more common among their paragons than are other faiths.

BackgroundHalf-bloods are either slaves of the Daelkyr, or loners. Two Daelkyr half-bloods together almost certainly indicates that they are in league with Xoriat, for other half-bloods mistrust one another. As a result, there is no unified background for Daelkyr half-bloods.

RacesThe are exactly two races that a Daelkyr half-blood, as a racial paragon, has noteworthy opinions on: the Daelkyr themselves, and whatever race they were corrupted from. On the Daelkyr, a half-blood either fights under them, or avoids them; if he fights under the Daelkyr, his birth race may be all but forgotten. For those who avoid Khyber, their parent's race - and their relationship to it - defines their relationship with the rest of Khorvaire. If they were loved, cared for, and managed to find a place within their parents' race - even if only through hiding their symbiont - they are likely far more willing to interact with Khorvaire society. If not, however, they probably spend as much time as they can among the wilds, and avoid their parents' race as much as the Daelkyr.

Of note, although Daelkyr half-bloods are almost always corrupted human infants, they need not be. The power of Xoriat is that pervasive, that it can create a half-blood with any creature even vaguely humanoid in appearance. Importantly, Daelkyr half-bloods still look startlingly human even if their parents were not, for the Daelkyr seem to have an affinity for this form. A half-blood whose parents are elven might have slightly pointed ears, maybe looking like a half-elf, or one whose parents were half-orcs might have greenish skin, but even if the parents were halflings, a Daelkyr half-blood is still a medium creature with all of the statistics described on page 37 of Magic of Eberron. If the parents were smaller than medium, there is a very good chance that the half-blood's birth killed the mother, unless magical intervention saved her.

Other ClassesDaelkyr half-bloods are forced into secrecy, which makes them extremely wary of classes dedicated to truth and light - like the Paladin. Other than that, though, they really have no common opinions on other classes.

Game Rule InformationDaelkyr half-blood paragons have the following game statistics.

AbilitiesConstitution is important for a Daelkyr half-blood, for so much of their power comes from manipulating their bodies with symbionts, and their body needs to be very hardy to handle this. Aside from that, a Daelkyr half-blood's abilities are prioritized by their other classes.

Armor and Weapon ProficiencyA Daelkyr half-blood gains no new armor or weapon proficiencies. Most Daelkyr half-blood paragons use symbionts for both arms and armor, and require no proficiency with these.

Symbiont Level Bonus (Ex)A Daelkyr half-blood paragon gains a bonus equal to his class level to his total character level for the purpose of determining which symbionts he may choose for his Personal Symbiont racial feature. This stacks with the fact that his class levels are included in his character level, so they effectively count twice.

Divided Ancestry (Ex)Unlike other racial paragons, Daelkyr half-bloods can take levels in more than one racial paragon class. After gaining at least one level as a Daelkyr half-blood paragon, a character can take levels in the racial paragon class of his parents' race, whatever that was, or the Human racial paragon class, if his parents were not human (but not both, even if his parents were not human). If his parents' race has a Half-human racial paragon class, that class is a third option (for example, a Daelkyr half-blood born of two Elven parents could take levels in the Elven, Half-elven, or Human racial paragon classes, but only one of the three, and even if he took the Half-elven racial paragon class, which has its own Divided Ancestry feature, he could not take levels in the other two racial paragon classes).

If this second racial paragon class advances spellcasting or similar as if certain levels gained "+1 level of an existing class", a Daelkyr Half-blood may sacrifice that benefit in order to get another bonus to his character level for the purpose of generating symbionts. He may choose differently at each such level, as if this bonus was another "existing class" to improve. This may only be done with such bonuses in a racial paragon class, not with other classes that advance spellcasting or similar features. This benefit does not apply in any way to the Daelkyr Half-blood racial paragon class itself.

Symbiont Enhancement (Ex)A symbiont attached to a Daelkyr half-blood may be enhanced as if it were an item. He does not need to be personally responsible for enhancing it, but he must be present at all times in which the enhancement is being worked on. Even if he is not the one doing the enhancing, he may elect to pay the XP costs himself, rather than the one enhancing it. If he removes the symbiont while the enhancement is being worked on, all progress is lost and any costs already dedicated towards it (including XP costs) are lost without benefit.

Treat any symbiont that grants a natural attack (such as a Crawling Gauntlet or Tongueworm) or allows the host to make an attack as a part of any normal attack (such as a Throwing Scarab or Tentacle Whip, but not as with a Stormstalk or Winter Cyst, which require Standard Actions to use) as a masterwork weapon for the purposes of pricing enhancements added to it.

Treat any symbiont that grants an armor or natural armor bonus to AC (such as a Living Breastplate) as a masterwork armor for the purpose of pricing enhancements added to it. As an exception, however, the Living Breastplate itself is considered a +3-equivalent armor, and additional enhancements should be priced accordingly (it does not, however, have any actual enhancement bonus to armor, for any effects that require an actual enhancement bonus instead of an equivalent in special abilities, such as Armor Augment Crystals; the Living Breastplate waives the usual requirement that a magic armor must have at least a +1 enhancement bonus before gaining special properties).

Treat any symbiont that grants a shield bonus to AC (should one be found) as a masterwork shield for the purpose of pricing enhancements added to it.

Treat all other symbionts as wondrous items; adding additional effects to them costs an extra 50% due to sharing the same slot (see Creating Magic Items: Adding New Abilities for details). Note that many symbionts do not actually take magic item slots, so in many cases it is better to simply wear a magic item alongside the symbiont rather than pay the 50% surcharge.

Second Symbiont (Ex)At 2nd level, a Daelkyr half-blood paragon may grow a second Personal Symbiont, following the same rules for growing a new symbiont as if he had lost his original Personal Symbiont, except that his second symbiont must be grown as if his character level is 5 levels lower than it is for the purposes of choosing his original Personal Symbiont (minimum 1st). He may change one or both symbionts each level, as normal for replacing one, and may regrow either as normal if he loses one. If he loses both, he may regrow both, but only one at a time, first replacing one (usually his original) and then the other.